The Rebel Inventor's Daughter
by sarsaparillia
Summary: SasuSaku / Steampunk AU — In a city called Nighttown, an adventure clanks to life. "Look at them. They're like ants." INDEFINITE HIATUS.
1. a girl on her knees

**disclaimer**: disclaimed.  
**dedication**: more les&sonya&eleni. and lady gaga.  
**notes**: WHAT AM I DOING.  
**notes2**: "Plot twist—_he's been __**date-raped**_!"

**chapter title**: a girl on her knees  
**summary**: SasuSaku / Steampunk AU — In a city called Nighttown, an adventure clanks to life. "Look at them. They're like ants."

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—

"Look at them all."

It was raining. It had been raining for weeks and weeks. It didn't look like it was ever going to stop.

"Hn?"

A girl and a boy sat on the edge of a sky-scraper. They sat in the rain's shadow of the building's spire, dry but not warm. The girl's legs hung over the edge, and she swung them back and forth, precarious and about to fall.

"Them. Look at them. They're like ants."

She was looking down at the ground, stories and stories below. The streets looked like dark glass, the rain slicking it down. The dull din of mechanical carriages echoed up towards them.

"Hn."

"They run around all the time. They never stop moving. Do they even ever _sleep_? And there's so many of them. They're so _insignificant_."

"Dissimilar."

"Same difference. They all follow the rules, no questions asked. And so much of the time, those rules don't even apply, not in real life. They're all deluding themselves."

"Hn."

"Well, they are. There're thousands of them." She stopped, and snorted. "And they're all gonna die. It's kind of a pity."

"So are we."

She looked at him, eyes green and slit, a strange little smile playing on her lips. "Of course we are, Sasuke-kun. Everyone dies."

"Hn."

"C'mon," she said. "Water's rising, and we have a blimp to catch."

She stood up, and walked away from the edge of the high-rise. One of her mismatched stockings caught on the scratchy edge of the cement and tore, ripping a long tear in the flimsy candy-cane-striped nylon. The girl stared down at it, dismayed; it was one of her favourites. She sighed. There was nothing to be done about it; they _did_ have a blimp to catch.

"Sakura," the boy said.

The girl called Sakura smiled at him, pushed her brown satin top hat with the peacock feathers sewn in back on her head, and reached a leather-gloved hand down to help him up.

"Let's go," she said, with eyes older then her seventeen years.

Sasuke watched her tug her green felt coat around her, brown canvas shorts at odds with her top hat and her satin smock, striped the colour of sand and sky, and her feminine boots, leather and gold, laced up to her calves, and the red silk ribbon tied around her throat hanging next to an intricate cog-key. He wondered what in Queen Victoria's good name a lady like her was doing here.

She was half-way inside when she turned, coat whipping around her as she moved, ribbons flying, and raised an eyebrow at him. "Aren't you coming? The blimp won't wait."

Sasuke straightened the black tie around his neck, and pulled a silver pocket watch from his vest pocket. He studied the glass back for a moment, watched as the machinery _tick-tick-tick_ed away the seconds, the minutes, the years.

He'd have to wind it, soon.

Sakura, all pink hair, top hat, coat, boots, red ribbon, and green eyes were all still waiting for him.

Sasuke put the pocket watch away without looking at the time, and followed Sakura inside.

—

The dress was black and crimson, hiked up and ruffled, printed with grey fleur-de-lis, and buttoned high at the throat, bell-sleeves dripping red lace. Sasuke watched quietly, as a maid fastened Sakura into the dress, tugging furiously at the red whale-bone corset's lacings.

"That looks painful," he said.

Sakura ignored him. She stared straight ahead and allowed the maid to lace up the last of the stitchings. "Well," she murmured, pressing a hand to her tiny waist "I can't breathe, so at the very least, it's tight enough. This'll keep them quiet."

The maid fluttered around the room. Sasuke fixed her with a cold-eyed glare, but it was Sakura, whose voice, cold as ice, politely cut through the room. "Thank you, Nishie, that will be all."

The girl froze, before curtsying meekly, and leaving the room.

Sasuke watched the tension go out of Sakura's shoulders as the door closed, and a minute sigh of relief escaped her. "That's my family, for you," she said.

"Hn?"

Sakura shook her head, hair in perfect pink ringlets, pinned up in a perfect pink up-do, curls falling about her face. There was a bitter look on her face, and Sasuke wondered, again, what in the Queen's name she was doing there.

"We'll be landing, soon," was all she said.

The _whirr-whirr-whirr_ of the blimp's engines buzzed through Sasuke, bees wings on a summer's day.

But the sky was cloudy, the air too thick with smog to breathe, outside the blimp window.

Sakura walked to a chair, mahogany and intricately carved. She was unsteady on her feet, slow, methodical, one-step-two-step-three-step-four, a bizarre waltz of extremes. Sakura, Sasuke thought, was a marriage of all the left-over scraps in the world.

He wondered what would become of her.

The descent to Yorugakure began.

—

It was grimier then Konoha.

Kerosene lamps lit the landing pad as the blimp set down. Sakura stood at the window and looked out, through warped glass and delicately wrought copper-iron frames, to the city beyond. She pushed the window open, and sensation assaulted Sasuke.

The air smelled of sea salt and death. Towers belched black smoke, columns of shadows against the cloudy, gloomy sky. In shades of grey that Sasuke did not recognize, they were lost amid the darkening curtain of night time. The city was a haze of purple and black, bruises marring pale skin. The buildings of the city's center jutted out of the ground, sharp, virulent crags. A mechanical heart played a steady, monotone rhythm, _th-thump-th -thump_, in the distance.

"Welcome to Nighttown," Sakura said, softly. "Welcome."

She was wearing a black silk top hat on top of those perfect pink curls. Sasuke didn't know where it had come from.

He offered her his arm. She grinned at him, shiver-slip, and they descended from the blimp, Sakura's wrist tucked into the crook of Sasuke's arm.

"You won't like my family," she said. Her head was bowed. There was a red brass poppy on her hat that looked like blood.

"Hn?"

"They're a lot like yours."

Sasuke snorted.

"Except a little more sane."

"Hn."

The path off the landing pad was lit with more brass lamps, streaked up the sides with soot. Sakura and Sasuke walked down the path that led away from the landing pad. Her heels _click-click-click_ed against the cobbled stones, the only sound for miles, resounding like the _hiss-tick-tick_ of the innards of the gigantic clocks that overlooked most cities, nowadays.

The mecha-carriage glinted dully in the dim light. Sasuke opened the carriage door, and helped Sakura up the step, and into the carriage, before slipping in, himself.

Sakura smiled at him, razorblade sharp, peppermint swirls of cold against his skin. "Don't worry. The driver knows me. He knows where to go."

Sasuke nodded, face impassive.

The machine's gears clankered to life, hissing and spitting steam as the mecha-carriage rattled away, on the cobbled street. Sasuke watched as Sakura folded her hands in her lap and leant back against the faded elegance of the dark grey seats.

"Sasuke-kun," Sakura said. Her gaze was very far away.

"Hn?"

"Just… be ready, okay?"

Sasuke jerked his head once in acknowledgment.

All was quiet, then, save for the clanking and groaning of the mecha-carriage as they trundled along.

The night passed, and they headed towards Nighttown.

—

"So you've come back."

"It's nice to see you too, Karin."

The house was a gothic romance come to life. The two girls stared at each other across the threshold, mirror images of each other, ringlets, dresses, cog-keys at their throats.

Sasuke stood behind Sakura, hands tucked into his airship blazer's pockets. He could feel the tension between the two of them, the girl with the long crimson curls, and his own clockwork wild-child.

The red-head girl tilted her head, just a little, and Sasuke saw a flash of iridescent blue-green—peacock feathers hung from the girl's ears. "They thought you were never going to be back, did you know? They made a bet about it. Father looses, I guess."

Sakura smiled. "Daddy always looses. I need to speak with them, the both of them."

"So you're not staying."

"No. I won't stay here, I've made that clear, Karin."

The red-head folded her arms, long fingers. "Then I'm coming with you. If you go, I'm coming with you."

Sakura lifted an eyebrow. "Oh?"

The other girl—Karin?—lifted one in return.

They looked at each other for a few more seconds. Sakura broke the tense silence. "Only if you bring my goggles."

"Fair. I want my mask, too."

"Done."

The two girls nodded at each other, and then the red-head-curls girl moved out of the doorframe. Sakura looked over her shoulder, at Sasuke, and grinned.

For a minute, he thought he saw destruction and fire, explosions, a smoking brass-and-silver gun held high in the air; but then, it was just Sakura, again, and the vision was gone as if it had never been.

"Come on," she said. "Let's go bully my daddy into giving us an airship."

—

"Sakura."

"Hello, mother."

Sakura's mother, Sasuke thought, looked absolutely nothing like her daughter. There was a cold sort of beauty about the woman who was Sakura's mother. She was all white hair and sharp yellow eyes belied a face unlined by age, a small body laced into a dress that broke ribs, fushia in colour. There was a monocle on her left eyes, and a brass cog broach pinned on the woman's breast. She sat on the divan, striped blue and white, and surveyed the room with pursed lips.

"What do you want, this time, girl?" she asked.

"Right down to business, aren't we?" Sakura asked in return, mocking in a simple, forced-innocence way.

"This is the first time you have been home, my dear, in more then a year and a half. This is not a visit for pleasure—you have yet to introduce me to the young man standing behind you—and, as such, I must assume you want something."

The average temperature in the room dropped ten degrees. Sakura stared at the woman. Sasuke could feel the ice of blatant dislike rolling off her constrained body in waves.

"An airship, mother," Sakura said. "I need an airship."

"You're running away, then," said Sakura's mother. It was a statement, not a question.

Sakura bristled. "Think what you will, mother."

"I always do, Sakura dear. Now, if you want this airship—"

"And I do," Sakura said, immediate.

"—then that will be it. We will wash our hands of you. No second… _chances_." The words were accompanied with such a nasty glare that Sasuke was surprised that Sakura simply didn't combust where she stood.

Sakura nodded once, a calm motion, completely prepared. "I expected no less," she said.

Sakura's mother stared at her for a moment longer.

"Warf nine," she said, at last. Sakura's mother did not look at Sakura, nor at Sasuke; she stared at her lap, concentrated on her hands, perfectly folded, pale and bloodless against the fushia of her gown. "Warf nine, the _Hispaniola_. You will need a crew."

"…Thank you, mother," Sakura said, suddenly gentle. She took a single step forwards, leaned down, and pressed her lips against the woman's cheek.

"Get out," Sakura's mother murmured, sounding tired and fragile.

Sakura nodded, again. She took that single step back, turned towards Sasuke, a wild look of glee on her features. She grabbed her skirts, and hurried out of the room, jerking her head in a motion to indicate that Sasuke follow her.

"Young man, wait, please. I wish to speak to you. _Alone_," she stressed. "Sakura, you may wait outside."

Sasuke stood in front of the mother of the girl who'd just closed the door, bristling. But the woman did nothing but look at him, for a moment. She sighed. It sounded sad.

"Look after her, won't you?" she asked, simply.

"Yes, ma'am," Sasuke replied, stoic and calm.

"Good. Get out of my sight."

And Sasuke went.

—

"What'd she want?"

Sakura's formal speech patterns disappeared as soon as she was out of her mother's presence. She grinned at him, tearing pins from her hair left and right, pink curls escaping the tight confines they'd been put up in.

Sasuke shrugged. "Hn."

She grinned at him, and reach up to brush his hair out of his eyes. "I don't know how you see at all," she said, ever the conversationalist.

He shrugged, again, but didn't force her away.

Sakura was different. It was allowed.

She was still wearing that dress.

Sakura's red-head sister—Karin—was waiting at the front door, a leather sack slung low over her shoulder, a hand on her bustle-clad hip, looking comfortable in a leather corset. "Did she cave?"

Sakura grinned. "Of course."

Karin tossed red curls, and laughed. Sasuke saw that flash of blue-green. "Of course. So what do we need?"

"A crew. Got any ideas?"

A strange smile spread across Karin's face. "You're going to hate me."

"Don't worry, I already do."

"Then I have someone in mind." She paused, and looked back at Sasuke. "Who's he?"

Sakura looked back at him, too, and smiled a very different smile then Sasuke had seen before. This smile was… soft, around the edges. "He's Sasuke."

"Sasuke?"

"Yes," Sakura said, with that same smile. "Sasuke."

—

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_tbc_.  
**notes3**: NO REALLY. WHAT AM I DOING.  
**notes4**: dear brain: i thought we agreed: NO MORE MULTI-CHAPS. clearly, no one listens to me.  
**notes5**: i _really_ like writing steampunk, _wow_.  
**notes6**: _**PLEASE REVIEW**_, i'd love feedback on this.


	2. a girl wearing brass goggles

**disclaimer**: the characters are disclaimed.  
**dedication**: les, for always looking everything over & telling me that no, i do not, in fact, suck zebra penis.  
**notes**: Suigetsu/Sasuke/Kiba. get over it, it works. i _dare_ you to tell me it does not. also, where the hell have _i_ been?

**chapter title**: a girl wearing brass goggles  
**summary**: SasuSaku / Steampunk AU — In a city called Nighttown, an adventure clanks to life. "Look at them. They're like ants."

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—

The tinker's workshop was a cluttered mess of paper, metal, streaks of engine gunk along the doorknob, along the walls. Brass cogs, small and large, were scattered across the floor. It was like the inner workings of the Steam Empire had been shredded and torn, upended and dumped out carelessly on the ground, left to rot and rust.

"Who's there?" came a muffled voice, from somewhere deeper inside. It was low, male, pitching a little back and forth.

"Hi, Daddy," Sakura told the empty workroom, smiling a little.

"Sakura?" and a head stuck itself out of a door that Sasuke hadn't seen before. It was a man, bright red hair and full beard tempered with brass goggles pushed high on his forehead, and blue eyes that winked like freshly minted gears, beneath bushy red brows. He was wearing a pair of thick leather gloves, a thick leather apron, a very, very dirty white-streaked-brown-and-grey shirt and a pair of equally dirty pants; they'd likely been brown, once, but they'd gone grey from lack of washing and engine oil.

Sakura, back in her mismatched clothes and top hat, rocked back on the balls of her feet, and grinned. "Yes, Daddy."

"Does your mother know you're here?" the man asked. There was a jolly sort of grin on his grease-streaked face.

"Well… yes, and no."

The tinker laughed, deep in his chest, and swept Sakura up in a bear hug, gloves dirty against her green felt coat.

"My little girl," the man whispered into her hair.

"I miss you, too, Daddy," Sakura murmured in reply, face pressed against her father's chest. Sasuke thought he heard a sob, but when Sakura pulled away, she was the same as ever; dry-eyed and enigmatic.

Sasuke stood at the door with Karin. She raised an eyebrow, so much like her sister that Sasuke nearly choked, and she tilted her head towards the door.

Sasuke shot a glance back at Sakura, and went.

"They always did love her best," Karin said with a wry smile, tossing crimson hair back, as the door to the tinker's shop closed behind them. "Come along, I want you to meet someone. Or, a couple'a people, actually."

Sasuke nodded.

Nighttown, even in the daytime, was a murky mixture of red-coloured smoke, hanging leather, and the gush of steam. The sun hung low in the sky, early morning's weak light filtering through the haze of the smog. Voices called out from the obscurity of smoke and steam, other people thick, darkly moving shapes, laughter bubbling up and spilling, like the dark gold of expensive champagne.

Sasuke followed the red swish of Sakura's sister's hair through the narrow streets. She would disappear for a second, only to reappear a second later, ten feet ahead of him. There were pearls wound through her hair.

"Through here!" Karin called. She'd disappeared down a tiny cobbled street—Sasuke followed her down, through the slight gap between the rickety scraps-built-on-scraps buildings, and then through a shoddy scrap-metal door.

It led into a very large room—Sasuke had never seen its ilk, before. The ceiling was vaulted and so high that the roof itself was not discernable, hung in gloomy shadows that grew from the golden-light orbs that lined the walls. The floor beneath his boots was rusted metal, the colour of dry blood. In the center of the room stood war-mechs—several of them. They rose out of the ground, goliaths of burnished metal, standing tall and immobile in the dim room.

Sasuke blinked.

Karin stood three feet ahead of him, her hands on her bustle-clad hips. The pearls wound into her hair winked at him. Sasuke felt dazed.

"Oi!" she yelled up into the darkness. "Suigetsu! Kiba! Naruto! You lazy clods, where _are_ you?"

Three heads popped out of one of the war-mechs, all wearing goggles over their eyes. One of them was wearing a black gas mask. They blinked down owlishly at Sasuke and Sakura's sister, for a moment, before one of them—the one with sunny hair, restricted by the leather band that held his spectacles in place—pulled his goggles up his forehead, smiled widely and started yelling.

"So you've come back! How've ya been, Miss Haruno?"

Karin grinned coyly up at them. "I've been whimsy. How is a certain Miss Hyuuga? I hear you're secretly courting her."

Sasuke watched the colour drain from the blond man's face. Karin continued to grin like a cat that'd been at the cream, a satisfied smile on her lips.

"Don't worry, Naruto," she said. "I won't tell."

He—Naruto—breathed an audible sigh of relief. Sasuke chuckled to himself.

The other two figures pulled their gear off—two more men. From beneath the goggles appeared a dark-haired boy, grinning like a fool. From the gas-mask, a boy with hair so pale it looked white, regarding them coolly from above. Sasuke thought neither of them could have been much older then he himself was.

Karin, her hands still on her hips, called "Get down here! There's someone you ought to meet!"

The boys all grumbled, the grating of rusted gears, but they clambered down the hand-rungs that lined the war-mech's shining iron side. They landed on the floor with three loud _thuds_, thick, well-worn leather boots clunking dully against the metal floor. They stood before Sasuke and Karin in grease-stained, resplendent working-clothes, sepia-coloured in the small relief the light-orbs gave.

Sasuke stared at them, cool. The blond one squinted at him, blue eyes narrowed and suspicious. "Who is this, Karin? He doesn't look your type—"

The blond man's words were cut off by a low, rumbling growl, from the pale-haired man.

Karin rolled her eyes. "Oh, _please_," she said. "He's my sister's new toy. This one might even last, I think!"

The dark-brown one looked surprised. "Your sister is back?"

Karin fluffed her hair, and shot the speaker a withering look. Her voice was acidic as she said "No, Kiba, she just sent me her newest cog-and-sprocket man, boxed and wrapped like a present, you utter _moron_."

The man didn't even look offended. He just shrugged his shoulders, a wrench in his hand, a good-natured grin on his lips. The clink of gears against gears in his pockets was audible as he moved.

"Anyway," Karin continued, as if he was nothing more then a minor annoyance that she'd simply brushed off without a second thought (which, now that Sasuke thought about it, was probably correct, in Karin's eyes. She and Sakura were scarily alike in many respects, he thought).

"I need a crew."

The statement was met with dubious stares.

"For what? What could _you_ possible need with the lowly likes of _us_, Lady Haruno?" the very pale one sneered.

Karin stared at him for a very long minute, her jaw clenched. Sasuke saw a flash of Karin's blue-green earrings, and wondered at the wound-spring tension that had sprung up between them. He said nothing, and stood quietly.

"I don't want to—no; this has nothing to do with anything. _We_ need a crew for an airship."

"An airship."

"That's what I said, isn't it?"

Sasuke watched the exchange; didn't say a word. There was a long silence, where nothing made a sound, save for the distant roar of far-away mechanics gushing steam.

The blond boy shrugged. "Not like we got anything else to do."

Karin smiled, and brushed her hair away from her neck. "So we got ourselves a deal, boys?"

The pale one stared at her a moment more, and then exhaled through his teeth, a hiss of anger. "Yea'. _Lady_ Haruno, ya do."

Sakura's sister raised her chin an inch. The determined tilt to her jaw reminded Sasuke so painfully of Sakura that he couldn't breathe, for a moment.

"Good." It was the only word that escaped her mouth. She tossed her hair over her shoulder and whipped around.

The crimson mass danced behind her, barely flashing them all a smile as she turned her head and grinned at them all. "Watch him, won't you? I don't want him getting into any trouble while I'm gone. I'm going to find Sakura. I'll be back."

And with that, she turned away, and almost skipped out of the warehouse.

The door closed with a metallic _screeeeech_ behind her, and Sasuke was left in darkness.

—

"So."

Sasuke stared at the three other men from beneath level brows. The blond one was squinting at him, again.

"_So_," he said again.

Sasuke stared straight back at him. He could feel the ticking of his pocket-watch like the beating of a tiny, mechanical heart at his side. It was coldly comforting, in a way. "So," he replied.

"_So_," Naruto repeated. "What are your intentions with Sakura?"

Had Sasuke been anyone but Sasuke, he would have choked on his spittle. Intentions? _Sakura_? Sakura, with her satin top hat and silk smock? Sakura, with her bottle-green eyes and swirls of pink hair? Sakura, with her ticking clocks and her key necklaces? _That_ Sakura?

No, intentions were not what he had in mind.

Sakura was far too transient for simple things like _intentions_.

He made a sound low in his throat. "Nothing," he said at last. "Nothing at all."

The warehouse was very silent for a moment. And then one of the others let out a laugh, moved out of the darkness, and stuck out his hand. "'M Kiba. 'S'good to meet'ya."

Yes, Sasuke had gotten that from Karin's rant about boxes and sprockets. He was not inclined to shaking hands; he never had been.

But generally, it was the accepted protocol when it came to other people.

So Sasuke reached out, and grasped the gloved-with-thick-leather hand. An understanding passed between the two men.

It was the proverbial ice-breaker.

"Let's get down to the wharf," he said. "Gotta get the hell outta here, I ain't seen sunshine in a week."

Naruto clapped Sasuke on the back, and led the way to the rusted iron doors.

He pushed them open, and white-gray light filtered in.

Sasuke was momentarily blinded, his eyes unadjusted to the brightness after even such a short period in the dark.

He plunged forward, anyway.

Sakura was the kind of girl that people did things like that, you know.

—

Outside in the smoky light of Nighttown's daytime, Sasuke got his first proper look at the three men who were to be his companions. The clank and clatter of the outside world made intelligible speech impossible.

Sasuke hung back, and allowed the other men to take the lead, as they slipped out of the warehouse, and into Nighttown's market. He shot a glance to his left, his gaze flicking across the machines that lined the stalls of the market. Metallic screeching came from the clockwork menagerie just up the cobbled street, even as a dull iron tea-bot _chuff-chuff-chuffed_ away.

Nighttown was _alive_ with clattering and clanking; the world was in constant motion, constant noise, constant _change_. Nothing stayed the same for more than a half-minute.

So this was Sakura's universe.

It did rather explain a lot about her.

All Sasuke could see of Naruto was the back of his very blond head. The man was much like a summer's day in Konoha—sickeningly warm and happy, made up of bright primary colours. From what he had seen of the other man, Naruto had a personality to match his summery looks.

Sasuke had to fight not to sneer.

Kiba seemed to disappear into the background—he had a fascinating habit of blending into the proverbial woodwork. Sasuke had never seen anything like it. Perhaps it was the dark hair and darker eyes. Perhaps it was the tattoos, dark red inked triangles on his cheekbones. Perhaps it was the clothes, even; Kiba was wearing much the same clothing as the tinker had been, save for the fact that Kiba's white shirt and dark pants were considerably dirtier; covered in war-mech grease and grind. He seemed to be able to fade away entirely, should he wish it.

However, Sasuke could see that despite his own apparent invisibility, Kiba's dark gazed missed nothing.

Perhaps, then, there was some potential in him.

And the last one. He walked a half-step in front of Sasuke, hands shoved deep into the pockets of his patched coat. Tall and decidedly spindly in build, Suigetsu's hair was white, chopped raggedly to his jaw; Sasuke had been mistaken in the warehouse. There was a strange cast to his eyes—they were iced lilac, and oddly angry.

Sasuke, on his part, thought it better to not comment.

"So how'd'ya meet Sakura?"

Sasuke shot a sharp glance in the white-haired man's direction. "Why does it matter?"

"Doesn't."

But Sasuke had a niggling feeling that it did. "In a hat shop."

Suigetsu snorted. "She was buyin' a top hat, innit'a right?"

Sasuke decided that, once again, it was better not to reply to that. Of course, that was likely right—

_The hat shop was completely empty._

_Sasuke was standing at the register, sleeves pulled up to his elbows, buttoned into a dark pinstriped vest, waiting for __**something**__ to happen._

_The bell that hung next to the door jingled merrily as a girl danced into the hat shop. She looked like a breath of fresh air—colourful and bright in her striped smock, fingers chapped from the cold, boots clicking against the dark, marbled floor. She stood there, with her hands on her hips, and looked around._

_She pushed the brim of her satin top hat up, and looked at him, chin tilted, questioning._

"_Aren't you bored?" she asked._

_He didn't even know her name. Sasuke had no answers for a girl with no name._

"_You're as bored as I am. I can see it, you know," she told him, as she jumped up on the counter. "You're different."_

"_Get off the counter." Sasuke said, monotone. He paused, and then "Please."_

"_Hah!" she laughed, and looked at him over her shoulder. "If you want."_

_She slid off the counter. Her eyes were very green. "I'm Sakura, and you're bored. Do you want to go an adventure?"_

_Sasuke just stared at her. "Hn."_

_She smiled, and grabbed his coat on her way out._

—because Sakura did love her top hats.

Naruto turned a sharp corner. The scent of burned oil invaded Sasuke's senses, and the roar of the sky-harbour thundered to life as the jetties came into view. They jutted out of the warehouses that housed the airships, ready to cast off into the dark gray sky.

Night came early, in Yoru.

But then, that was something of a given.

"C'mon," Suigetsu muttered, and strode down the warehouse-lined street after Kiba and Naruto. Sasuke followed the three of them, all the way to the end of the street.

All the way to a very grimy pub.

Sasuke was not impressed.

"Where are we—?"

"Every ship needs a captain, don'cha know?"

"Hn."

Naruto was already headed inside, Kiba and Suigetsu trudging after them, and Sasuke was swept up in the tide of their combined will. He ducked in through the pub's doorway, and found himself in a low-ceilinged establishment. Blue smoke billowed from a far corner where a circle of men sat, warily eyeing the intruders. The only other patron of the place sat in front of the hearth; a fire roared there, the crackle of wood and flame snapping. The golden glow hid the man in smoke and shadow.

And Sasuke, deadpan and not surprised, found himself heading towards the dark shape.

In the circle of the fire's glow, Sasuke got his first look at the man who would be their captain.

He was hunched over a pint of ale, wrapped up in a red cloak made some luxurious material. He sat there, entrenched in silence, and stared at the leaping flames. Sasuke could see the brass-and-gold pistol strapped to his side. The man's head was bent, and all Sasuke could see were wisps of red hair—he could see nothing of the man's face. It was hidden by the brim of the rather ostentatious tricorn he was wearing.

"Nice hat," Kiba chortled.

The captain said nothing, but moved the brim up, and looked up at them. Sasuke caught a flash of dark-rings around light irises, a colourless slash of a mouth, and a strange red symbol inked on his forehead.

His reply was a low, measured "Don't make me kill you, Inuzuka."

Sasuke knew right from then that he and this man would get along.

"So," he continued, quiet. "I see Inuzuka, Uzumaki, and Hozuki. Isn't this _pleasant_. And you—who are you?"

He directed this last question at Sasuke, who wasn't sure if he should speak at all. They surveyed each other for a moment, assessing. It was a bit like being weighed and measured, Sasuke thought, but returned the stare.

Naruto broke the silence, looking anxious. "Gaara, he's—"

"—Sakura's," Sasuke finished for him, almost smirking.

"Ah," the captain said. "Then she must be back. And if you're here… You need a captain."

Naruto and Kiba both shifted, and had Sasuke had a feeling that the captain was laughing at them all. Suigetsu remained absolutely silent.

Sasuke felt, suddenly, like he was standing on that rooftop, Sakura sitting on the edge of the building, waiting out the rain. It felt like the precipice, that wobbling moment before one fell into a vat of bubbling oil.

The captain stood up slowly. His fingers curled over the brim of the hat, and pulled it down across his eyes. "Which wharf?"

"Twelve," Naruto crowed, because the fact that their captain stood meant that Naruto had won.

"Dead last," Sasuke muttered through his teeth. It seemed strangely appropriate.

But no one heard the hissed admission save for the captain, and he merely snorted quietly. Naruto was still too busy crowing, tempered by Kiba thwacking him soundly across the back of the head with another wrench, fished from some hidden pocket of his coveralls.

Sasuke was thoroughly tempted to slam his head against the wall.

(_But it's better than boredom, isn't it?_, a tiny, honest part of his mind whispered. _Anything is better than boredom_.)

Naruto had finally stopped his crowing ("_Oh, the cleverness of me_—!"), and all five of them looked up at the sultry voice that broke through their midst.

The barmaid was blonde girl with hair hanging hiding one of a pair of Konoha's-sky-in-the-summer-blue eyes. She stood in front of them, hand on her hip. She said, half-smiling "You boys can order, or yeh can get out. This in'int that kind'o 'stablishment."

Suigetsu made a great show of turning his coat pockets out.

The barmaid did not look impressed.

"Out! Out! All o' yeh! Ge' out!" she ordered, narrowing her eyes. Her face scrunched up like a raisin, and she made shooing gestures to herd them towards the door. Kiba laughed, and snagged the girl around the waist; tugged her towards him. She flushed as she hit his chest.

Sasuke was something between fascinated and disgusted.

Naruto just seemed annoyed. "They'll be sayin' _goodbye_ for an hour. Let's go."

"Hn," Sasuke muttered in reply, and turned towards the door.

Suigetsu snorted. "He'd be saying _goodbye_ to half the girls in the city, if we let 'im."

Sasuke said nothing, and listened to the two men bite back and forth. The captain, too, was silent, and the four men emerged from the grimy pub into the dark purple of evening. The thick smog of the day had sunk away into the sky, leaving the air thin, clean, and clear.

"Wharf twelve?"

"Wharf twelve."

And so they went.

—

The warehouse that enclosed Wharf Twelve looked much as the others did; sheet-metal siding (the aluminum-copper smelt looked sickly green with age), and rusted, dark roofing; the doors were thick iron plates. The doors were smeared with white paint—the numbers, of course. Six, seven, eight, nine… the warehouses ran forever, to where the street curved, and they continued past where Sasuke could see.

Naruto stopped in his tracks, and looked at them, sheepish. "I gotta—I promised—"

Suigetsu snorted. "Go talk to yer li'l girlfriend. I'm sure she wants 'ta say goodbye. We'll wait at the wharf. Don' screw it up."

Naruto beamed like a ray of sunshine, and took off in the opposite direction. He was practically skipping. It was disgraceful, Sasuke thought.

But Suigetsu just shrugged. "He wants 'ta marry her. He can' just _leave_; least, naw withou' tellin' her first—Tinkerbell'd kill him when he got back if he did."

Sasuke inclined his head the barest amount.

Eighteen and a half paces more and they had reached Wharf Twelve.

The thick iron plate that served as the door was pushed out of the way; someone was clearly already there.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow, and followed the captain into the interior of the warehouse. And there, Sasuke got his first look at _The Hispaniola_.

_It's a beautiful craft_, was his first thought. _Where's Sakura?_, was his second.

The hull was polished mahogany; it gleamed dully in the wharf's hanging lights. The sails were closed, but clean and unpatched. The masts nearly brushed the roof of the warehouse, and the rigging was tight and freshly tied; new rope, it looked like. This ship looked like it belonged in the King's fleet. And perhaps it did—that would explain rather a lot about Sakura, and Sakura's obviously-aristocratic family.

Sasuke looked up to where the ship's wheel was—

—and there was Sakura, standing at the helm, aeronaut's hat pulled down around her ears, strands of pale pink curling out from underneath it. She was giggling to herself, spinning and spinning the wheel until it was little more than a dark blur at the help.

She finally stopped, and looked down at them all. She pushed the hat up, stared at them, smiled with her teeth, and called "Come up! There's a ladder somewhere, I think—? Karin, _where's the ladder_, the boys are back!"

Sasuke watched the flash of red that was Karin's hair whipping around the ornate wood railing. A hiss passed her lips, and then she was gone.

Sasuke privately thought she must have caught sight of Suigetsu.

His private thinking was cut short as the _thump_ of rope-ladder hitting jetty sounded. Sasuke looked at Suigetsu. He looked about as happy to be climbing that rope as not, and so Sasuke climbed up first.

Karin was waiting at the top to help on deck. She was biting her lip, and as she helped him over the rail, she whispered in his ear, desperate "Is he still down there?"

"Yes," Sasuke murmured in reply.

The girl let out a tiny whimper, and drew back. She shot him a wary look, before fleeing towards the door that led to the hull.

Sasuke ignored the cursing that echoed up from below, where Suigetsu and the captain were still stationed. They seemed to be having trouble getting up the rope ladder, but at that moment, Sasuke looked up.

And Sakura was grinning at him, rocking back and forth on the balls of her booted feet, hands tucked behind her back. She was just standing there, on the stairs up to the helm, grinning wider than the whole sky.

She rocked back, once more, before stepping down the last step and stretching her arms wide.

"So. What do you think?"

"Hn."

"Looks like an adventure, right?"

Sasuke's lips quirked into a smirk.

"Looks like an adventure."

—

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_tbc_.  
**notes2**: props to whoever can guess what the airship is named after. :D  
**notes3**: have just discovered dieselpunk. omfg, where has this been all my life.  
**notes4**: reviews are greatly appreciated, so please leave some!


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